


Tony Stark as a dad

by Konoto



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi, actual A+ parent Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-16 11:37:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8100967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Konoto/pseuds/Konoto
Summary: Collection of little fics centered around Tony Stark being a dad.





	1. Laundry day

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to start this because I had been seeing so much Tony hate around so I decided to make myself feel better with lots of fluff.
> 
> It's bassed on this [post](http://konoto.tumblr.com/post/147377116617/tony-stark-as-a-dad-headcanons) which is a little list of my own headcanons, now, each chapter is different and can include -or not- some of the headcanons in the list. And, as it says in the post, this is compatible with many Tony-ships which might or might not appear.
> 
> Also, you can leave suggestions with your own headcanons in the comments or send to my [Tumblr](http://konoto.tumblr.com/)

Prompt: Give me a Tony who gets a laundry machine just so the baby can sit on it and laugh when the thing vibrates as it works.

 

\---

“Alright, the last connection”

Tony announced after a few minutes of being, quite literally, inside the machine, or at least half of his torso was. He sighed as he finally got out and stretched, the bones of his back cracking slightly after being crammed in the same position for a bit too long. Tony looked up at the machine and smiled softly, quite satisfied with the results.

“Now all we have to do is load it” Tony said as he faced at the little person sitting nearby on the floor “Wanna help me?” he asked, smiling when the little boy nodded, giving him a gummy smile that showed only two tiny bunny teeth, the little one watched him with those big brown eyes that had anyone who looked at him wrapped around his little finger.

The little one pushed himself up, still a little wobbly on his feet but Tony didn’t reach to help him, knowing he could do it himself but Tony remained alert in case he fell or tripped with his own feet, all chubby and adorable, and damn, he did make cute babies.

“Here, you can start with this”

Tony pushed a little pile of rumpled white clothes to the kid and watched with a smile how delighted he seemed to be given a little task; chubby hands were quick to start picking each item and shove it inside the machine, sometimes his aim was a bit off but Tony reached to help him a bit until the pile was gone, the child clapped his little hands when Tony praised him for his help and Tony smiled at his little giggles.

“And for the great ending” Tony picked a bright red sock, showing it to the baby and smiling when little hands tried to reach for it “Oh, no, this for uncle Clint’s surprise” Tony crooned as he tossed the sock inside the laundry machine and closed the door “Now he’ll learn how not to break stuff around the house and not to eat your teddy cookies” Tony said as he kissed the baby’s cheek and picked him up easily “Would you do us the honors?” Tony asked to the little one and pointed to the button on top of the machine as he helped him closer, knowing how much the kid likes to press buttons, or anything really, as long as he could reach them, more so if Tony asked him to.

Soon enough the machine started to fill up with water along the soap Tony had previously put inside. The brunet crouched with the kid in tow to let him see inside the machine and how it was slowly filling up with water, smiling as the kid seemed hypnotized by the movement and soon enough the machine started to work, moving slightly, vibrating.

“Oh, this is gonna be so much fun” Tony said, getting back up and setting the kid on top of the laundry machine.

At first the kid seemed taken by surprise but soon enough he started to smile and shriek and laugh with that contagious sound that had anyone who heard him laughing or at least smiling with him. Tony loved to see him happy so he got around to know all the little things that made the kid laugh and, upon discovering them, he’d store the new ones in his memory for later. They were usually silly little things easily achievable, but not for that Tony ignored them; silly cartoons on the tv that Tony would program for the kid to watch whenever he wanted, his dad making silly voices while reading him a bedtime story, Natasha slapping Clint’s arm, anyone kissing his little hands or feet, especially when Tony pretended to munch on his little toes.

Clint wasn’t exactly happy that he had to wear pink underwear for the next month, but he accepted his fate for eating Petey's cookies.


	2. Midnight dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Give me a Tony Stark who’d very gladly wake up in the middle of the night and slow dance in his pajamas while playing soft music with a very upset little baby cuddled to his chest because they’re teething.
> 
> Ship: Ironpanther
> 
> Thank you so much for your comments and kudos!

T’Challa woke up in the middle of the night to a dark room and the other side of the bed empty, his husband missing from his usual spot leaning against T’Challa’s chest or very close to him. Frowning mildly, the King pushed himself up and off the bed, stretching to get rid of the mild stiffness and sleepiness still clinging to him.

For a moment he had thought Tony must’ve gotten out of bed to make a quick trip to the bathroom or to get water but then he had notice the bed was rather cold which meant that the brunet had been gone for some time. T’Challa had never minded that Tony didn’t sleep as much as he should, he knew the brunet had an incredibly active brain and sometimes needed to work on his ideas or they’d bother him nonstop, the king didn’t mind it, he had known Tony like that and he was no one to change it, he didn’t pressure Tony to just abandon his work but he’d occasionally try to get him to rest a bit or eat before getting back to work, T’Challa understood that first hand, after all, he had to look for his country and despite that he loved and lived to serve and lead his people, he didn’t like that it took away so much time he could’ve been spending with his husband, even if Tony insisted he didn’t mind.

Loneliness wasn’t good company. T’Challa’s obligation and busy schedule and Tony’s tendency to bottle up his feelings away until they were close to explode made their relationship a bit rocky at first and lack of communication had been their great weakness, still was sometimes but they were getting better at handling it, not letting things accumulate and pile up; T’Challa was very patient and kind and Tony very caring and never gave up, those were their strengths, that and the love and respect they had for each other.

Their security consisted in a very balanced system between technology and human efforts. T’Challa had the Dora Milaje and Tony had Jarvis. The Dora loved and cared for Tony as much as Jarvis loved and cared for the king, even though T’Challa had a bit of a hard time understanding that at first because it was an AI. Due to their status both as King, business man and avengers, to keep themselves and their loved ones safe was their priority which meant there was always someone looking for them at all times, with Jarvis being the ever present eye that saw everything while the Dora Milaje took turns both to work, rest and train. So T’Challa wasn’t surprised when he found one of his guards, this time Okoye, standing by the door that gave to the living room, her dark eyes quickly spotting him and he greeted her softly when she bowed her head slightly.

“Your husband is inside, with the little one” she informed and the tone in her voice didn’t alert T’Challa of any harm that could’ve come to either his child or husband so he thanked her and walked in with light steps.

As he crossed the door frame soft music reached his ears and a smile blossomed on his lips when he was welcomed by the sight of his husband in the middle of the living room, in his pajama bottoms and a shirt he had stolen from T’Challa, not that the king minded at all, barefoot and holding a baby in his arms as he swayed gently following the mellow music. T’Challa almost felt bad to walk up to them and interrupt their little moment.

“Looks like you are not the only one out of bed” T’Challa spoke aloud, careful to keep his voice not too loud as not to disturb the little one.

“In my defense, it’s all her fault” Tony chuckled and gave that soft, warm smile he only kept for those he loved the most, which were his closest friends, his husband and their little girl.

T’Challa frowned and looked at the little one; she had her head hidden against Tony’s neck, her messy dark hair everywhere and tiny chubby hands holding onto her papa’s shirt. The king reached out to rub her back and that certainly got her attention, she looked up at him with big brown eyes and a pout that could’ve have anyone melting right away. The king asked her in wakandan, inquiring what was wrong with words he whispered softly against her hair as he pressed a kiss against it, the little girl didn’t answer, mostly because she couldn’t exactly talk properly yet-even though she could understand everything perfectly, and opened her mouth, pointing with a little finger and T’Challa was able to see what was causing his little love such distress; right there the tips of two tiny bunny teeth could be seen.

“You’re growing, it has to happen, but we can get something to make the pain go away” T’Challa sighed and kissed her again, giving her a loving fond smile.

“I’ll get the teething gel, could you hold her?” Tony asked and made a motion to hand the baby to T’Challa and he King was already holding his arms out for her but she didn’t seem to agree, she let out a whimper and held tightly to her papa’s shirt.

“No” she mumbled, already pouting and looking close to crying.

“I’ll get it” T’Challa decided not to insist twice, the last thing he wanted to hear was their little girl crying, the mere sound always got his heart in a tight grip, even if he didn’t show it often, and maybe she wasn’t hurting that much but whenever Tony was near, she made a show of it just to get cuddles and kisses, for whenever she fell or tripped in front of others, she giggled, got up and kept on going as if nothing had happened, but as soon as she saw Tony around, she cried bloody murder. She was spoiled, that was for sure.

As he started to walk out of the living room, the sound of Tony humming and singing softly to their daughter made him smile.


	3. No sharing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No particular prompt for this.

Babies can be rather possessive, that was something Tony had seen from time to time; some kids were rather reluctant to share toys and maybe even food or candies, but people? That was something Tony learned, quite fast actually, even before Peter learned how to talk properly.

__

“So, are you gonna stay there all day?”

“Yep”

“You sure you don’t wanna come over? We’ll get the food and be right back, some fresh air would do you good”

“Not a chance, Cap, we’ll be fine right here, besides, Petey looks about to fall asleep and I’ll be damned if I let you clowns screw with his sleep schedule again” Tony hummed as he lied comfortably on the couch with a little boy curled up on his chest, sucking on his thumb and blinking slower each time and Tony thought, hopefully, he would fall asleep, then maybe Tony would take a nap too, and yeah, it took having a child for Tony to have a more stable sleep schedule. And that thing books said about ‘take advantage to sleep when your kid sleeps’ was totally true.

“Okay, okay” Steve smiled at his husband and leaned down over the couch to press a kiss to Tony’s lips “You want Chinese, right?” he asked, his lips brushing warmly over Tony’s own.

“Don’t forget the chow mein like last time” Tony smiled as Steve pressed a few more brief kisses on his lips “I thought you were in a hurry to leave” Tony chuckled softly but didn’t make a move to push Steve off; if it was up to him, Hawkass and Thor would go on their own for the food since they insisted to go themselves instead of having it delivered.

They kept on going like that, just light kisses and smiled, but as all good things, it wasn’t mean to last; soon enough they were interrupted by a little whimper that had both of them looking down at the little one in between them.

“No, no kiss!” was the first thing that came out from Peter, the sleepy voice took away any effectiveness the anger could’ve had, making the kid look rather adorable with his big doe eyes and that cute pout.

“No? You don’t want me to kiss him?” Steve chuckled, rather amused and leaned in to kiss Tony again only to be stopped by a tiny chubby hand pushing at his face.

“No kiss mama!”

Of course Barton, the big asshole, had taught Peter to call Tony mama. Sadly for the archer, his plan backfired because Tony didn’t mind being called that, after all how could be called such be a demeaning thing when he was raised by a great woman and had been around great women all his life? Peggy for example, so being compared to them was more of an honor than an embarrassment. 

Steve smiled and attempted to kiss Tony again but stopped dead on his tracks when Peter’s lower lip wobbled, threatening to erupt in a full wail fit.

“Alright, alright, I’m not kissing him” the blond man held his hands up in surrender and pulled away, huffing a bit though he was still smiling; he just couldn’t help himself, it was rather cute.

Peter wiggled, crawling further up so he could wrap his little arms around Tony’s neck and smooch his face against Tony’s, and the brunet only laughed, wrapping his own arms around the little one, squishing him gently, he pressed a few kisses on Peter’s hair and then on his temple.

“Papa is going to get some food and meanwhile you and I can take a nap, how does that sound?” Tony spoke softly to the kid, who nodded and snuggled up closer to him.

Steve had to smile at that because who on earth would’ve said Tony Stark would be god with kids? Let alone have one. But what most people knew of Tony was his public persona for the people close to him knew just how good Tony was with children, it was a thing that came natural to him, you just had to see the gentle way he treated Peter, how easy he got him to smile and laugh and how completely smitten Peter was with his ‘mama’, or rather, how much Peter seemed to dislike anyone who wasn’t Tony. Well, dislike was going a bit too far, after all, Peter was in that terrible age or stubbornness and he had to get his way or he threw a fit that no one was willing to subject their poor ears to, so they almost always ended up giving him what he wanted, which usually turned out to be Tony.

And Steve wasn’t jealous of his own child, that would be absurd, but sometimes he could almost swear Peter gave him the stink eye whenever Tony wasn’t looking.  
__

“Wanna hug me, Tony?”

As soon as Clint said that aloud, the pattering of little feet hurrying from the living room could be heard from the kitchen and soon enough Peter appeared, running clumsily up to Tony, pouting and raising his arms until Tony chuckled and bent over to pick him up.

“What’s up, buddy?” Tony smiled at the kid who held from Tony’s shirt with tiny chubby fingers and stuck his tongue out to Clint who cackled with laugher.

…

It was movie night when Clint tried it again; they were watching a crappy movie and in less than half an hour Clint was bored out of his mind, so who could blame him really?

He looked up to where Peter was, sitting on Natasha’s lap at the other end of the couch, absently playing with her fingers, very interested in the dark, glittery purple of her nails, so Clint decided to start subtle; he scooped a bit closer to Tony, sitting by the brunet’s side and moving slowly until they were within an inch of distance and very smoothly, or so he liked to believe, wormed his arm around Tony’s shoulder, thing that wasn’t really odd since Tony was a rather tactile person and liked to cuddle, especially during movie nights, usually Steve was the one having Tony wrapped up all around him but he had been called away to a recon mission and wouldn’t get back till tomorrow afternoon. So it was a chance he couldn’t miss.

Clint moved and cleared his throat, loud enough to get Peter’s attention and it was almost as if triggering the Hulk out, in the form of a very pissed two year old leaving his spot on Natasha’s lap and crawling over two more people to reach Tony, who helped him sit back up, glaring daggers at Clint who laughed a bit.

“What? You don’t like me hugging him?” and for good measure, he pulled Tony a bit closer.

“No!” Peter’s shrill voice got almost everyone’s attention, except Bruce who was dead to the world sleeping on one of the individual sofas.

“Why not?” Clint said and got a bit closer only to get a tiny hand smacking him right on the nose, and for being a baby, Peter had a good aim.

“No, mama!” he whimpered, close to tears.

And that did it. Tony cooed at him and wrapped his arms around the kid, hugging him to his chest and rubbing his back, while Clint rubbed his nose and earned himself a smack o the back of the head from Natasha, her cold glare made him shut his mouth.  
__

“Mama?”

“Mama is sleeping, baby”

“Mama!”

Steve sighed as he tried for the god knew what time to explain to Peter that he couldn’t go to ‘mama’ because Tony was very ill, or so he claimed, it was only the flu but Tony liked to dramatize everything. Either way, none of them wanted Peter to get ill too, so while Tony remained confined to the bedroom until he wasn’t a walking source of virus anymore, Steve was left in charge of Peter. It had been quite easy, Peter was a well behaved child, easy going and very loving, but as soon as he noticed Tony’s absence all hell broke loose.

Peter ran to his parents’ bedroom, Steve was surprised he was so fast to have such short legs, and knocked on the door calling for Tony in a tone that had Steve’s heart in a tight grip but he couldn’t risk Peter getting ill, not with his asthma. With a sigh, Steve walked to get him, picking him up as careful as he could and it was a bit tricky when Peter was squirming like a fish that just got out of the water.

“Pete, remember when you got sick last month?” the soldier tried to get the kid’s attention, looking right at him, he gently brushed Peter’s messy hair off his face with his fingers, earning a little whine and a nod “Well, mama is ill like that, okay? He’s not feeling good, but you can’t go with him right now” and he hurried to explain further when Peter’s lower lip wobbled, threatening to break down in tears “Because if you go with him you can get ill too, and mama doesn’t want that, okay? He doesn’t want you feeling sick too, he wants you to be okay, but right now he has to rest and sleep a lot so tomorrow he will feel better and come out to play with you, because you like to play with mama, don’t you?” Steve felt a bit relieved when Peter nodded and even smiled a little “So while mama takes a long nap, what if you and I go play, mh? We can color, you like to color, right?”

And he took Peter back to the living room to try to entertain him for as long as he could, hoping that Tony would get better soon, or else he might go crazy.


	4. No sharing 2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A different take on the last chapter. And for those who wanted more ironpanther

“And who’s that hiding there?” the reporter asked, smiling softly as she bent over just enough so she could see the little one trying to hide behind Tony’s legs, holding onto the brunet’s trousers, turning when the reporter tried to catch a glimpse.

“This is Vela” Tony said, not really making a move to try and get the child to greet the reporter like some parents did when they met with strangers, force the children to greet them and even give kisses or hugs. Tony was not fond of doing that, if the kid didn’t want to say hi then they didn’t want to.

The reporter tried again but the only thing the little girl did was go around Tony’s legs until she was standing in front of him, all curly hair and big brown eyes, she just lifted her chubby arms up, wanting to be held and Tony picked her up easily, letting her curl up against him like she always did.

“Daddy’s girl I see” the woman smiled as she looked at them.

“Mama’s, actually” Tony corrected without giving attention to the slightly awkward look the reporter gave him “I think our time is over now, if you excuse me, there’s a little princess who wants to play” Tony said and the dismissal was more than clear as one of the guards approached, waiting to guide the reporter to the door.

“It was a pleasure, Mr. Stark, thank you for your time” she aimed to hold out her hand to shake Tony’s own before a tiny chubby hand reached out to push away her own right when Tony was in for the handshake.

“No!” she whined and reached out to pull Tony by the sleeve and hold his hand herself instead of the reporter.

There were no more words exchanged the reporter was escorted out of the premises.

“Did the princess kick out another reporter?” Okoye’s velvet voice came through when she walked into the room, her smile almost imperceptible on her lips as she watched the little princess play with Tony’s fingers.

“I didn’t like her anyway” Tony shrugged and kissed Vela’s cheek, smiling at her. “Let’s look for papa, he must be waiting for us, ntanda” he coed at her, earning a very eager nod and a few babbled words as he started to walk out of the room, followed closely by Okoye.

__

T’Challa had an arched eyebrow right after his husband finished telling him about the little encounter with the reporter, another one. It wasn’t surprising really, and as amusing as it was at first, T’Challa knew Vela would have to grow out of it eventually. For whenever she didn’t like someone close to Tony, she would do everything she could possibly think off to get them to back off, and T’Challa had to admit she had proved to be very smart; she would demand to be held, try to get Tony’s attention or plainly push the other person away if they got too close, leaving the crying as the very last resource. T’Challa had to give her credit for that.

“And she just pushed her” Tony finished off, chuckling.

“Vela” T’Challa chided mildly but the little girl paid him no mind, too entertained playing with the buttons of Tony’s shirt, poking at them with tiny fingers “It’s not right to push people” T’Challa said, brushing some of her hair off her forehead, getting her attention and he couldn’t keep with the little lecture when such a cute baby was giving him a bright smile “You will have to start trying to stop” T’Challa kissed her little hand when she reached out to pat his cheek.

“My King, the meeting will begin soon” one of the Dora Milaje approached, waiting for the King to step away.

“I will see you for lunch” T’Challa said, pressing a kiss on Vela’s cheek before turning up to his husband, pressing a soft kiss on his lips only to hear a whimper and a chubby hand pushing at his cheek. The little girl grabbed at Tony’s cheek to tilt his head so he would kiss her.

“You don’t want me to give him kisses now?” Tony spoke to her, smiling and leaning in to kiss her cheek “But I like kissing him” Tony joked and just for good measure he turned back to his husband to kiss him briefly, the little girl didn’t take longer than two seconds to protest and demand her own kiss, which Tony gave her right away.

The King smiled warmly, shaking his head before turning to leave.  
__

Tony was sitting on the ground in front of T’Challa’s very large, very imposing panther who was waiting very patiently for her treat, which Tony handed in between his fingers, she took it and munched on it, the large pink tongue poking out. The little girl, with her attention always on everything her mama did, crawled over the soft grass up to Tony and sat down next to the panther and opened her mouth waiting for her treat, making Tony laugh and the Dora smile.

“You want one? But they’re Inathi’s treats” the brunet smiled when the little girl didn’t give up so he handed her a treat, knowing she would spit it right away, and that she did, upon tasting it she made a face, winkling her little nose and spitting the thing out “I told you, those are for her”.

The panther didn’t seem to mind at all, eating the discarded treat and lying down, proceeding to lick and playfully paw Vela, treating her like one of her own.  
__

“Are you still up?” Shuri asked as she walked into the bedroom “Can I join you?”

She spotted her brother in law and her niece right away, lying on the large bed sans her brother, apparently they were also trying to wait for T’Challa to arrive from a trip that was taking a bit too long. Tony patted the bed besides him in a silent invitation that Shuri took right away, smiling and climbing onto the soft mattress, sighing and curling up a bit closer, and maybe a bit too close for Vela wasn’t subtle when she pointed it out.

“You’re so selfish” Shuri pouted at the little girl who was pretty much curled up on Tony’s chest and looking very happy on her spot “You hear me?” Shuri poked one of Vela’s tiny chubby feet and Vela pocked her tongue out at her in retaliation, Shuri gasped, pretending to be hurt.  
“Girls” Tony called without opening his eyes “Keep it and the two of you are going to sleep in your own beds”.

“She started it, she’s hogging you” Shuri pouted but Tony knew she was pretending.

“No!” the little girl held tighter on Tony’s shirt.

So much for wanting to sleep.


	5. Fluff therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because not all babies are the same. Human babies are not the only babies.

“Wait, what?”

“Tony” Steve cleared his throat, trying to be patient, and having a hard time at it.

“No, no, I think I heard wrong, am I still asleep or something?” Tony rambled as he ran a hand through his hair, which was already quite messy.

“You heard me correctly, this order comes from Fury and I agree with him--” but Steve was cut short.

“No”.

“Beg your pardon?” Steve said, starting to feel a migraine threatening to appear, throbbing behind his eyes, but he pushed the feeling aside. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed “This isn’t a question, Tony, this is an order and it’s for your own good, believe it or not”.

“And since when any of you is interested in that?” the brunet gave him a deadpanned look as he arched a dark eyebrow, seemingly very skeptical.

“Tony” Steve sighed once more “Look, we’ve have our differences” he ignored Tony’s scoff “But I’m trying, alright?” he tried again “Okay, I have a proposition, mh? You can try it for one week, and if by the end of that time you still don’t like it then you can back out and I’ll tell Fury it didn’t work out, what do you say?” Steve looked up at Tony, not wanting to look too hopeful, even though that hope faded the longer Tony kept looking at him as if he suddenly grown a second head, or like he had gone absolutely crazy, which Steve felt like he would soon if that situation didn’t resolve itself.

“Fine” Tony said after what felt like an eternity to Steve “But don’t get too excited just yet” Tony warned when he saw the blond smiling “I’ll try for a week, and you better not give me that look if I chose not to keep them”.

“What look?” Steve tilted his head to the side slightly.

“You know damn well, when you look at me like I just murdered your puppy” Tony gave him a narrowed look as he took a sip from his coffee, he burned his tongue but he hid it well.

“Okay, I won’t, I promise” Steve smiled nonetheless, content that Tony had at least agreed to try.

“Now get out of here, you’re too happy and it’s too early for that” Tony rolled his eyes and ignored Steve’s chuckle as the blond man left “Remind me to never say yes to anything Rogers says before noon” Tony said aloud as he poured the coffee down the drain, he couldn’t taste it anyway “This can only end badly”.

“Dully noted, Sir” Jarvis said.

__

Tony stared down at the—he didn’t even know what to say as he eyed suspiciously whatever Steve was carrying and currently holding out to him, surely waiting for Tony to take it, but the brunet remained unmoving and right on his spot, tense and not quite enthusiastic of the whole ordeal. After a few moments Steve seemed to get that Tony wasn’t about to move and set the thing on the ground gently.

“I made sure Jarvis got everything you needed and he told me you read all the information the association sent for you” Tony saw the man look around to all the things and toys and the soft little blankets carefully set all around the room. When Steve finished his little checkup, he looked back to Tony, and it was almost funny that a guy who weighted more than 200 pounds and was over 6ft tall looked almost insecure, as a big dog who’s been scolded for chewing on something he shouldn’t have.

“Is that all?” Tony crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited for Steve to say something else and the man actually opened his mouth but seemed to think twice before shaking his head “Great, now you can leave” the brunet made a dismissing motion with his hand.

When Steve was out of his sight, and out of the room, Tony could feel himself relaxing again. He didn’t know why he had said yes to that whole deal, it wasn’t like he had time to spare, though thanks to Fury now he had. But since he had agreed to do it, Tony made sure to inform himself and know absolutely everything there was to know, after all, Tony Stark didn’t do anything by halves, he might as well the world’s expert on, well…

A hissing sound came from the carrier Steve had left on the ground.

Tony sighed. What had he gotten himself into?

__

Tony stared down at the pair of very big, round green eyes looking right back at him. The brunet lifted one of his hand and very slowly reached out, he didn’t even touched her –or at least that was what Jarvis said- when she hissed at him, showing tiny milk teeth. Tony stopped, waited for a few moments and tried again, this time he managed to touch the tips of the soft pointy ears before she hissed at him again.

“You’re a grumpy one” Tony declared but there was no heat in his voice or tension in his features “In your defense, I would be angry too if I were all alone in a place I didn’t know, and of course, Spangles brought you and got all on your face, didn’t he?” he hummed, holding a finger out in front of the kitten and letting her sniff at him first, he consider it a small victory when he felt the tiny sandpaper-like tongue on the tip of his finger “He can get a bit overbearing but you can always scratch his nose”.

The brunet chuckled and pushed himself up, leaving the kitten there as he occupied himself getting one of the little bowls they’d given him for her and filled it up with water and setting it down. Tony looked at the variety of cans of kitty food and without even looking over his shoulder he spoke aloud “What kind would you like best? You look like a fancy kitty, so what about…” he hummed and turned the cans so he could see all the flavors “Salmon?” he wasn’t exactly waiting for an answer so he went ahead and opened the can and he guessed the smell got the cat’s attention because soon enough he heard a shaky little meow that came from somewhere near his feet.

“Or maybe I’ll be totally wrong and you’ll like the most common food” Tony said as he set another bowl, this one with food, right beside the water, arching a dark eyebrow when the kitten pretty much tripped over her own feet trying to get to the food as fast as she could “Did they starve you back at the shelter by any chance?” Tony saw as the kitten pretty much inhaling her food, doing a great impression of Thor when the god chomped on food as if it’d suddenly disappear; Tony guessed she thought it would, after being abandoned.

__

Tony stared at the kitten and she stared right back at him in what was their second staring contest, this time Tony was lying on his belly on the carpet, leaning his head on one of his arms as he reached out with his free hand, ignoring the mild warning hiss when he got to close. Very slowly, he reached to touch the kitten and scratch behind her ears and under her chin, smiling as the little thing closed her eyes, purring like a happy little engine.

“Now that’s not so bad, is it?” he chuckled and took it as a victory.

__

“Jesus fucking Christ, what is all that noise?” Clint walked into the common area to a little concert.

He would’ve laughed his ass off watching someone as big as Steve trying to calm a cat that could easily fit into his cupped hands.

“I don’t know, she was okay a second ago” Steve looked in the verge of despair.

“Then do something” Clint wasn’t good with animals, sure he thought they were okay but he didn’t know how to deal with them and he’d rather stay away from unpredictable forms of life, he got enough of that during his time at the circus and more of that at SHIELD.

“If I knew what to do I’d do it” the Captain gave his teammate a stern look.

“Captain, it appears that Miss Peanut Butter misses Sir” Jarvis, always wise.

Clint and Steve stared at one another, dumbfounded.

“He named her Miss Peanut Butter?” was the first thing that came out of Clint’s mouth before he cackled with laughter.

“She misses him?” Steve parroted, ignoring Clint.

“She has spent quite a considerable amount of time with Sir over the past few days, therefore it’d be correct to assume she has grown attached to Sir” Jarvis explained and Steve could almost swear he heard some warmth in his voice.

And he wasn’t wrong, after all, Tony had spent at least 12 hours a day with the cat, of course he used that time to work but he was in the same room as her, and had luckily avoided everything that required him out of the tower. Until that very morning of course. Pepper had arrived very early to pick Tony up to assist to a meeting he had to be present for, hence was why Steve was left on kitten-watching duty.

Steve didn’t need to say aloud that it wasn’t his forte. Sure he could lead a team into battle, create fighting strategies, rescue civilians, talk in public, face vicious criminals, but baby-sitting a cat wasn’t among his repertoire of abilities. He wasn’t familiar with the language of cats, they weren’t as easy to read as dogs, they seemed to say one thing but mean another; the two cats he had encountered in his life, had hissed at him, and due to his many ailments before the serum he wasn’t keen on finding out if he was –also- allergic to cats.

The soldier pulled out his phone and dialed Tony’s number and waited for the genius to answer.

“I’ve been gone only for an hour, is the tower on fire yet?” Tony’s voice came through and Steve could hear the grin in his voice.

“Your cat—Miss Peanut Butter misses you” the mention of the name drew a very loud laugh from Clint on the other side of the room. Steve sent him his best glare.

“Put her on the phone”.

“What?” Steve frowned and looked down at the kitten who was still crying and not even trying to keep it quiet.

“Put her on the phone” Tony repeated his words, this time slower, as if he were talking to a kid.

Steve didn’t even dare to question again, he just set the phone down in front of the kitten; whatever to get her to stop crying. He could hear Tony’s voice, if faint, whispering nothings at the kitten and even crooning, and it was working. The cat approached to the phone slowly, surely recognizing the familiar voice and just sat there, meowing from time to time as if answering whatever Tony was telling her.

From that day on Tony started to take the kitten with him if he had to go out. She sat on his shoulder like a puffy little parrot.  
__

Steve took the lift to Tony’s floor. It was the seventh day since the kitten arrived and the trial time was up. He was already hearing Tony’s voice telling him to take the cat back to the shelter and never to bring another or even mention the idea ever again; Steve didn’t even know what he would tell Fury if that happened.

But he didn’t have to do anything. Upon exiting the lift he spotted Tony right away. The man was on the couch, dead to the world, sleeping for once, and there was a little fluffy lump on his chest. Steve couldn’t help the smile that curved on his lips as the kitten moved, yawning widely and stretching only to move up a few inches and curl up underneath Tony’s jaw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if Fluff Therapy even exist but I'm aware that people with mental illness such as anxiety, PTSD, OCD, conditions such as autism and situations such as rehab or reintegration to society (felons) are sometimes designated a therapy animal or companion, the most common being dogs. We are all aware of Tony's issues and condition so I too my approach through this.


	6. Fluff therapy vol. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, work has been absolutely crazy and I've barely had time to sit down and write, much less inspiration, but here it is, finally.
> 
> Also, I want to wish all of you happy holidays, whatever it is you celebrate -or not- I hope you have good moments with your families and/or friends.

“You know, you’re very grumpy to be so tiny” Tony said as he gently cleaned the tiny little thing with a damp cloth, holding the kitten by the back of his neck while he kept on hissing and complaining.

For someone who had been so reluctant at the beginning, Tony had taken the task like one more of his routines; as if it were a project he couldn’t keep his mind and hands off. And well, no one could blame him for refusing to take it the first time Fury brought the idea up. It had been right after a particularly rough mission, so when he heard Fury suggesting it Tony had wondered aloud if he had hit his head harder than he though and was hearing things. And apparently that was enough for Fury to force him to go to medical to get checked out. The fact that he did indeed have a mild concussion was irrelevant.

The first cat had come and gone, adopted rather quickly only after two weeks under Tony’s care; Miss Peanut Butter managed to put some weight and her fur had lost the scruffy look, getting all soft and shiny. It had been strange to watch her go. He had gotten attached to her, sort of, she had been with Tony pretty much all the time during her stay, and since there hadn’t been any missions or emergencies that required his presence, Tony hadn’t gotten out much, taking advantage to advance with his ever-growing list of duties from SI and SHIELD along with the team’s equipment updates. To say the least, the bots appreciated their new, and temporary, playmate, even if Dum-E had been terrified of the kitten for the first hour, until the kitty purred at him, to which he had responded with his own beeping sounds.

But she had been adopted a week and a half after she had arrived, the shelter had only been waiting for her to reach a weight of 3 pounds before they could give her away. Tony had played it casual but he did feel the absence; the little lump that crawled to sleep on his chest every night wasn’t there anymore, there were no purrs waking him up, and even the bots were a bit sad –and yes, they could feel sad no matter what Barton said. Tony didn’t have to think too much to make Fury’s idea into a program that could help both his issues, which he still refused to talk about, and orphaned cats to get a loving home.

What started as a task meant to somewhat assist Tony with his anxiety, changed into a program; Avenger’s kitties. It wasn’t exactly the Avengers’ per se, mostly only Tony, but people would be more interested to adopt cats that had been taken care of, and even named, by the Avengers as a whole instead of just one of them. The shelter took care of all the adoption process while Tony just took care of the kittens, bathing them, feeding them, playing around, cuddling, and of course, naming them and taking several photos which he later posted, increasing then the chance to find them a loving home. The whole program was approved after its success was proved right after Tony was assigned his first litter of kittens and they were assigned homes almost immediately, and maybe that was helped by the video Natasha recorded of the tiny fluffy kittens following Tony around the tower like little ducklings.

“Maybe I should call you Hulk Jr” Tony chuckled, wrapping a soft towel around the hissy kitten while carefully drying him before setting him back with his siblings, who welcomed him with playful pounces and purrs.

__

“Um… Tony?” Steve’s voice sounded insecure, just like it did whenever the man was stuck not really knowing what to do or say, like when he encountered crying babies; and people still thought he was good with kids, and yeah, maybe he was, but not with babies. But right then he wasn’t dealing with kids but with four kittens doing their best attempt to climb up his sweatpants.

“Coffee first” Tony mumbled, clearly not completely human just yet as he padded into the kitchen completely ignoring the fact that the kittens seemed to be pretending to be goats and using Steve as a mountain to climb on, tiny sharp claws holding into the material of Steve’s sweats.

Once Tony got his coffee and was a bit more present into the realm of the living, he took advantage to snap a few photos of Steve being used as a climbing wall by a hoard of little kittens along with the caption “New jungle gym, available in stores soon”. The photo got almost ten thousand likes on Instagram within the first fifteen minutes.

__

“You know, when Jarvis called me to tell me you were in trouble this wasn’t the kind of trouble I expected you to be in”.

“Honey bear, this is not exactly the time”.

“I have dealt with threats to world peace, with giant robots, with megalomaniac villains…” Rhodey kept on going, making Tony roll his eyes “But this?” Rhodey got back up, carefully holding a tiny ball of fur from the skin of the back on its neck, arching a dark eyebrow as the little thing meowed loudly.

“Careful, you beast” Tony said, hurrying over and taking the kitten from Rhodey’s hands, cradling the cat against his chest, though Rhodey would keep on insisting that that wasn’t a cat; it was a ball of fur with a triangle by tail. “What did the mean, horrible man do to you?” Tony cooed, honest to god cooed at the cat who purred back at him, as if telling Tony about all the horrible things Rhodey did; now Rhodey could say he had seen everything. Tony caught him staring and gave his best friend a narrowed look “Did you come here to mock my babies or to help me find them?”

Rhodey held his hands up in surrender and resumed the search.

To tell the truth, he had never realized in how many tiny places a kitten could hide until he had squished himself between the wall and the some furniture, lying on the floor and stretching his arm as much as he could, trying to reach the very last kitten. The evil little thing just stood there, staring at him and not moving a paw to make Rhodey’s job easier.

Rhodey really missed fighting giant robots.

__

It had been a month of not seeing each other except through video calls, and no matter how much people insisted, it wasn’t the same. Sure, it made the distance less painful and at least he got to see Tony and speak to him pretty much any time he wanted, but he couldn’t be near him, he couldn’t touch him or kiss him or wrap his arms around him.

As a prince and future king, T’Challa had responsibilities, a duty with his country and his people, and he was more than lucky to have a partner who understood that better than many, after all, Tony had his own company, his home, it would’ve been incredibly selfish of T’Challa to ask the man to leave everything for him, just as it would’ve been if Tony asked the same of him, so they worked around it. They were grown men, they talked to each other, though that part had been a bit of a struggle at the beginning, and if there was an issue, T’Challa would procure to bring it up as soon as possible; bottling things up had been the cause of some of their early disagreements.

But after a full month, T’Challa had finally cleared his schedule enough to spend a couple of weeks with Tony, he hadn’t even mentioned it to the man in hopes to surprise him, but the only one surprised as T’Challa himself. He had meant to look for the man, assuming it was very likely he would be down in his lab, and just appear there, Tony would turn around and smile and rush to hug him, kiss him and maybe, if things heated up, he’d wrap his arms around the shorter man and carry him up to his bedroom. But after Jarvis informed him Tony wasn’t in his lab, T’Challa had to scratch the first part of his plan, and it wasn’t really a bad thing, it was just a few less steps, the thing he did find strange was the fact that Jarvis told him Tony was sleeping –which was rare enough on its own- but the fact that he had company, and not only with one but six; T’Challa knew better than anyone that Tony liked to cuddle, so it was usual for the man to do it, usually Rhodey was Tony’s personal pillow whenever T’Challa wasn’t around, Banner occasionally, but the prince wasn’t so sure the other Avengers would be so willing.

The sight that welcomed him was quite… Not what he was expecting at all. There was Tony alright, lying on his side and curled up on the bed, his head resting on one of the many pillows and his hair a tangled mess, which usually meant that the man had been sleeping quite a while, and that made T’Challa feel more at ease knowing Tony had been resting properly. The thing that was off in the picture was that there were at least 6 cats on the bed, tiny kittens in various positions all over the bed; there was a tabby lying as long as it was across a pillow, there were two white kittens curled up on Tony’s hair, there was a black kitten snuggled right beneath Tony’s chin like a fluffy scarf, and finally, two more cats, also black with a little bit of white on their paws, lying near Tony’s chest. It certainly wasn’t what T’Challa had in mind but he wasn’t complaining at all.

The prince took his phone out and silently snapped a couple of photos, a few to keep them for himself, and some others to send them to his sister, he was sure she’d coo at the photos as soon as she saw them and maybe call to demand Tony to send her more.

Usually, if T’Challa came to find Tony asleep, he’d just lay down with him and maybe indulge himself and sleep a little, not wanting to disturb Tony; the man slept little as it was. But with the cats around, T’Challa didn’t think he could do that without Tony waking up. Though that changed too soon, for one of the cats seemed to have detected his presence, opening a pair of big cloudy blue eyes and yawning widely, showing tiny milk teeth. The image made T’Challa smile fondly, and he really couldn’t help himself to reach out and gently pet the kitty, scratching between the pointy ears, the soft purring made his smile widen.

“Mh… What are you doing here?”

T’Challa looked up and saw his lover looking at him, blinking owlishly and sleepily, barely moving, surely he wanted to avoid disturbing the other cats.

“I was meaning to surprise you but I ended being the one surprised” T’Challa smiled, leaning closer to Tony and bending over to press a kiss on his lover’s forehead, moving to kiss Tony’s cheek and finally pressing another kiss on the corner of the brunet’s lips, only stopped by a tiny paw pressing against his cheek. The prince chuckled softly and pulled back only to spot the black kitten looking up at him; it didn’t look too content by having his nap interrupted, it almost made T’Challa feel like he had to apologize.

Said kitten was soon distracted by Tony’s hand scratching right between his ears, making it close his eyes and purr happily.

“I present you your long lost son” Tony said, a playful tone in his voice. He scooped the kitten, the tiny thing was barely bigger than his hand, and held him out to T’Challa who took him with both hands, holding him carefully and as gentle as he could.

The kitten didn’t look impressed at being manhandled, especially after having his nap interrupted. He seemed like it had an attitude already. T’Challa found that terribly amusing.

“Shuri will love him” T’Challa smiled down at Tony warmly “And I’m sure my father will approve of his… Grandson” the prince said, quite amused.

“I thought so” Tony smiled sleepily.

T’Challa could see he was still tired. The prince set the kitten on the bed, the little thing padding to get close enough to Tony before curling up, quite set to go back to sleep, and T’Challa decided to join in; leaving one more kiss on Tony’s cheek, the prince took off his clothes, leaving only his underwear on before he carefully climbed on the bed next to his lover. He had had to scoop and relocate a few kittens on the way but at the end Tony managed to assume their usual position, resting his head on T’Challa’s chest and an arm around the prince’s waist.

T’Challa woke up a couple of hours later, Tony still pressed against his side, but there were a couple of purring little lumps curled up on his chest as well as another one on the pillow near his head. It didn’t take him much time to spot the three other kittens –for a few seconds he panicked thinking he had accidentally crushed them, but they were all snuggled against Tony, one of them using the brunet’s cheek as a pillow.

Smiling, the prince pulled his lover a bit closer and willed himself to go back to sleep.


	7. Resized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one said dealing with the new trainees would be easy. Set somewhere, maybe, after CW.

“See? This is why you don’t go out on missions or get involved into any Avengers business unless is under the supervision of any of us”.

Tony’s tired voice made Kamala look down in shame. It wasn’t that Mr. Stark yelled, she had never seen him doing it, but it was that ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’ tone that made her feel worse than to be yelled at. She looked up to him, so did Peter. Ever since she was smaller she looked up to the Avengers, but Iron Man had always been her favorite, no matter what people said about him. But now she had disappointed him.

She heard Tony sigh and stand up from his seat, she saw just how exhausted he looked and that made her feel a whole lot worse. Neither of them had meant to give Mr. Stark any difficulties and they had only wanted to help, they wanted him to be proud of them, they wanted to be heroes like him, even if Mr. Stark didn’t consider himself a hero. And that had been something quite heartbreaking and a bit of a shock of reality; the image the public seemed to have of Mr. Stark was completely wrong compared to reality. No one talked about how kind he was, how attentive and how selfless he was, how he would listen to them almost at any time, even when he was busy, if they had any questions or problems of whatever kind, from simple homework to bully problems –in Peter’s case- to pretty much anything. And that filled Kamala with anger and frustration, especially whenever she heard someone talking bad about him, because they couldn’t see him the way they did.

“I’m sorry” Kamala said, her voice trembling slightly and her eyes itched with unshed tears.

“Hey, hey” Tony’s voice crew closer and Kamala felt a warm hand being placed on her shoulder, squeezing it. “Whatever’s wrong, we’ll find a way to fix it” he offered a little smile that surely was meant to calm her but just made it all worse.

Because he wasn’t getting mad, he seemed to act like all those times he got a phone call and there was yet another thing for him to fix, for him to deal with, and Kamala had wanted to help him instead of giving him more problems. She could feel the warm tears start to roll down her face, she bit her lower lip to keep herself grounded, though it wasn’t helping at all.

“Come on”.

Kamala looked up and saw Mr. Stark opening his arms and she didn’t need to be told twice. She moved closer to hug him, wrapping her arms around his neck and closing her eyes and just holding onto him. For someone who seemed to avoid physical contact with pretty much everyone, Kamala noticed, he gave pretty good hugs.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we might have a problem” Maria Hill’s voice came through, getting their attention.

__

“A problem is a nice way to put it” Rhodey had that no-shit-Sherlock tone he got whenever he expected people told him the nonsense they said was just a joke.

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. What the hell was he supposed to say to May now? “For how long?”

“The doctors don’t know yet, maybe getting someone else’s second opinion would be a good idea” Maria said and Tony knew quite well what she was trying to do there.

“No, absolutely no, Strange won’t touch him” Tony surprised himself as well as Maria.

“It’s highly probable the spell will wear off in a few days…” Vision’s ever calm voice spoke up.

“What if it doesn’t?” Tony hadn’t meant to snap at the android but he couldn’t exactly keep calm when they had such situation in their hands.

“Then we’ll deal with it” Rhodey got in between “It’s been a long day and everyone needs to rest” he set a hand on Tony’s shoulder “I’ll keep an eye out on any new reports the doctors might give and I’ll try to contact Banner“.

“He won’t-“

“He will, I can be very convincing” Rhodey cut him short “But until then, we all need to go back home”.

“Then what? I can’t just take the kid back to his aunt and tell her ‘hey, guess what? Your nephew got turned back to a toddler’” Tony sat heavily on one of the uncomfortable chairs against the wall.

“We’ll come up with something, school related maybe” Rhodey tried to comfort the brunet as well as keeping himself calm too, even if it was difficult. They’ve had it worse. “In the meantime why don’t you go see him? I know you want to at least check on him”.

__

“As soon as you get back to your… Not-squealing-less-squishy self, you’ll be grounded” Tony said, trying to keep his features as serious as he could but it was hard to when you were talking to a toddler less than a year old, with big round eyes and an almost toothless smile except for two little bunny teeth.

“He likes you” Kamala said, much calmer now, with a smile as she looked at Peter, turned into a toddler by some poorly aimed spell, paw at Mr. Stark’s hands with his own tiny, chubby ones as he babbled.

“Well, I’d be sort of offended if he didn’t” Tony said, letting the little boy wrap his tiny hand around his finger and squeeze and shake, Tony even smiled a bit when Peter looked up at him.

It wasn’t a rare sight at all, Peter looking up at Mr. Stark as if the sun set on the man’s shoulders, not that Kamala denied she had had the same look of fondness and admiration, but it wasn’t the same when there was a small child instead of the teenage boy. It was quite adorable.

“We’ll find someone to take care of you for a couple of days while we sort all this mess out” Tony spoke to the little boy.

There were no coos, no baby-talk like the nurse had tried to do to calm Peter down, which was a complete failure. The man was talking to him in the same way he always did, and that was something Kamala really appreciated; if there was something any teenager hated was to be treated like a child who couldn’t understand, to be talked down at to as if they couldn’t think for themselves, Tony talked to them the same way he did with any other person, except maybe Colonel Rhodes, he was a special case.

Tony looked up when Rhodey walked in with Vision.

“There’s one agent set up to take care of him and I already called his aunt, don’t ask me how I did it because I don’t know” Rhodey started before Tony could even open his mouth.

And Kamala bit her tongue to keep herself from complaining. It wasn’t right to leave Peter with someone he didn’t know: he had cried nonstop while he was being looked over by the doctors, surely scared as hell by so many strangers around him, he had only calmed down when he was put in a room and Kamala had been allowed to see him. Peter had stopped crying then but he looked still stressed. It changed when Mr. Stark walked in. The little boy was all smiles and babbles.

Said agent along with a nurse walked into the room. They seemed nice enough, the agent looked like a kind woman and so did the nurse. But they were strangers, and Kamala would bite anyone who tried to take her friend away. Well, maybe not bite, since it wasn’t very nice, but at least she would protest, very loudly.

“Mr. Stark, I don’t think this is a good idea, I mean… We can take care of him” she stuttered a bit when all eyes were on her. Kamala looked down briefly, twisting her fingers nervously.

“Kamala, this is not that simple” Rhodey started.

“Yes, we can take him to the compound, he has his room there and Friday can get some baby stuff” she spoke quickly, trying to say everything she wanted to before being interrupted.

“He’s not a puppy you found and decided to take home, he’s a kid, we don’t even know if he still has his powers” Tony pulled away from the bed, carefully untangling the little boy’s hands from his fingers.

The kid’s former smile faded slowly, looking down at his now empty, little hands as his brain slowly worked the fact that Tony had pulled away. A pout curved in his mouth as he looked up at the man longingly as if hoping he would come back.

“Besides, we’re not equipped to take care of a kid, hell, I can barely take care of myself” Tony said and stopped, realizing he might’ve said a bit too much. “The important thing is that he can’t stay and he’ll be safer in properly qualified hands”.

Kamala watched helplessly as Mr. Stark stepped aside, allowing the nurse and the agent to come further in up to the bed. The agent carefully picked Peter up, even smiling at him but as soon as that happened, Kamala saw the little boy’s face changing from confused to scared. The pout became wider and more evident and soon enough there were the tell-tale sniffs that might become powerful wails soon enough. The agent tried, in vain, to rock the child and shush him with gentle words but the only thing she managed to do was to make it worse. Large brown eyes started to fill with tears and Kamala felt the need to reach out and take Peter from her and calm him down on her own, but it seemed like Peter had other ideas in mind. Peter looked around as if looking for help and only stopped when he set his eyes on Tony, pouting and whimpering and holding his chubby little arms out for him, making grabby hands as if asking to be picked up. And despite of what many said, Tony wasn’t a heartless man. He approached and gently took the kid from the agent’s arms, rubbing the little boy’s back as Peter curled up against the curve of his neck and shoulder.

“Come on, kid, don’t made the nice lady feel bad” Tony spoke, looking down slightly, trying to catch the baby’s eyes. “We can always find someone else if you don’t like her” he said, not really minding how the agent might feel for what he just said, she looked rather relieved not to have to deal with a wailing kid. “Now, why don’t you go with Agent Hill, she’ll find you some nice toys to play with for now while we find you a new nanny” Tony smiled a bit as Peter looked up at him, sniffing but a bit less keen on destroying everyone’s ears.

Tony walked a couple of steps towards Maria, she didn’t look to happy to be given the task but she didn’t complain and held her arms out to take Peter with her. Instead of going easily, Peter held for dear like with tiny hands to Tony’s jacket, whimpering and complaining and after a couple of tries, Tony didn’t have the heart to keep attempting to dislodge the kid off him, he just let the little boy curl up against his chest, his little head resting on the crook of his neck.

“Looks like he picked his nanny already” Rhodey, the bastard, said, and Tony could hear the smile on his voice without even having to turn around to see him.

It was going to be a long couple of days.


	8. Squishy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Figured with everything that's been going on around, we all need some fluff.  
> Thanks for all the kudos and comments, they're all great and I appreciate you sticking around even hen it takes me ages to update this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Ironpanther

Everyone thought Tony Stark, out of all the people in the world, was the most unqualified person to be a parent. Not only because of his own family history and his –failed- relationship with his own dad, but because of his lifestyle, because a playboy could certainly never fit a child in his life; in between parties, random hookups with women –and men, his recklessness… there wasn’t space for bedtime stories, diapers, toys, playtime and an adequate schedule for a child to grown in a healthy environment. That without even bringing to the table the dangers of a life as a superhero, where villains would certainly love to have a target to get to Iron Man, a weak spot that would have Tony Stark doing anything they want him to in seconds.

The thing was that none of those were true, not even close.

While it was true that in the life of a billionaire playboy there wasn’t time for a child, let alone a family to fit in. Tony was no longer that, sure, he was still a billionaire and had had great success with turning his company from a weapons manufacturer to a technology based company, changing the guns to phones, tablets and so many other things, even bioengineering.

With his background, people were prone to think Tony would indulge a kid and spoil them rotten and probably turn them into an ungrateful brat, like it usually happened to the children whose parents were celebrities or rich, or both, and Tony fell right onto the latter. He had pretty much everyone expecting for his kid to end up fucked up, just like Tony himself, sadly for them the field in which Tony grew the fucks he gave about what people thought of him was completely barren. For those who knew Tony, who really knew the man behind his public persona knew that if there was someone fit to be a parent, it was Tony Stark. And it wasn’t like he was raising a kid on his own either.

“You eat like a bunny” Tony hummed, smiling with amusement as he took one of the baby spinach leaves and held it out to the toddler, who took it with a pudgy hand, tiny fingers holding the green and eating it, chomping clumsily on it and before she even finished it she held out her hand, asking for more. “How can you be so squishy when you eat all these veggies?” Tony asked playfully, reaching out to take one more leafy green and handed it to the kid who munched on it happily

“Are not babies supposed to be… squishy?” a deep smooth voice spoke up, to which Tony didn’t even bother to look up for he knew who it was.

“Well, not all babies are this adorable” the brunet made his point evident by playfully poking the baby’s pudgy belly, earning a giggle and a squirm from said child. The man only smiled more when the child lifted a chubby hand up to his mouth, offering him a slightly crushed spinach. “See? Nice and adorable, I could eat you up, yes, yes” Tony cooed at the kid, pretending to munch on the tiny fingers which got a squeal and more giggles from the little girl.

T’Challa simply smiled, lovingly and fondly as he saw Tony playing and fooling around with their daughter. The little girl had taken to offer to share her own food to her papa, which was rather impressive for such a small child; usually babies her age were in their selfish stage, pouting and even crying at the prospect of having to share, especially if it was about food, or the attention of their parents or their toys –specially that yellow stuffed rabbit Shuri got her-, but the girl was rather selfless, at least with food. Or maybe she just inherited T’Challa’s habit and insistence of feeding Tony; the man didn’t seem to eat enough and often forgot about it. So between their daughter and T’Challa himself, they had that covered.

“Come on, Baba, are you gonna keep on staring at us like a creep?” Tony asked, facing upfront as he took a napkin to gently wipe the kid’s mouth. While them the little girl spotted T’Challa, giving him a wide smile as she made grabby hands for him.

Yeah, it was worth it to come home every day just to see that.

__

One of the other favorite things for her to do was to sleep, which was surprising for a three year old. And more than anything, she loved to sleep curled up against her papa; he was always warm and he told her funny bedtime stories or hummed softly at her while caressing her hair, lulling her to sleep. Most of the times Tony himself fell asleep too. Which in turn made T’Challa quite happy.

He would never outright tell his husband he had started to use their daughter to get him to sleep. For whenever he noticed Tony was working himself to the bone or not resting enough, he’d just bring their daughter and hand her to Tony. They both ended up on the couch or the bed, fast asleep. So far Tony hadn’t noticed, or at least he hadn’t said anything to T’Challa about it.

__

T’Challa watched them with a fond smile on his lips. Tony was lying on his back on their bed and their daughter on her favorite spot; using her dad as a pillow. She was quickly losing a fight with sleep.

“Just look at that”.

Tony’s voice caught his attention and made T’Challa look down, only to see Tony poking and tickling the toddler’s chubby feet, the tiny toes wiggling a little. T’Challa chuckled slightly. The child’s feet were indeed very cute, more so when she giggles sleepily at the tickling. A pudgy hand reached up to squish Tony’s nose.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping, you know” Tony spoke to the little girl, his voice slightly nasal as he didn’t bother to move her hand away.

“Well, she would if you weren’t poking her” T’Challa pointed out and tilted his head to the side slightly, in exactly the same way the kid did sometimes.

“Can’t help myself” Tony said and tickler her, earning squeals and giggles from the not-so-sleepy-anymore kid.

And as much as T’Challa wanted to roll his eyes, he just watched them with a loving, amused smile on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Tumblr](konoto.tumblr.com)


End file.
